Little Ghosts

One finds great difficulty in expressing the way with which the tretâllë mourn their fallen troops in the wake of that terrible spectre of war. The written word proves woefully inadequate, and I would venture to say that so too does the most striking of art fail to grasp the very essence of grief.
To even try to do justice to the ceremony is to attempt an exercise in futility. I dare say that perhaps it is something that one has to be present for to truly experience. It is the experience of a lifetime, and yet one should pray that one never has to partake, as often the price in blood that comes before is not worth paying.

Irridîri (Tretalleri: /ɪɾ.ɾɪ.dɪ.ˈɾɪ/), or "little ghosts" in the vernacular, are translucent, pale-grey flowers endemic to the Shrouded Peaks, primarily in and around the valley that houses the City of the Lost. The flowers serve an important role in Tretalleri traditions surrounding death and the remembrance of those that have passed on from the world of the living.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Little Ghosts are the flowers of a hardy shrub. The shrub itself is rather squat, growing to a maximum height of 1.5ft, and round, with a maximum diameter of 2ft. The flowers are elevated above the main body of the shrub by stalks that can grow up to a foot in height. The flowers generally have three or four sepals and a tightly wound bulb of nine pale grey translucent petals that opens in the presence of light precipitation such as a drizzle.

Genetics and Reproduction

Little ghost shrubs are dioecious, meaning that each plant produces either "male" staminate flowers or "female" carpellate flowers, never both. As such little ghost shrubs require cross-pollination. This is typically done by bees for plants grown in controlled environments for religious and memorial purposes, but the reproduction of little ghost shrubs in the wild has never been directly examined. It is thought that the majority of the shrubs in the City of the Lost are wind-pollinated as there have been no pollinators discovered in the The Desolation.

Ecology and Habitats

The valley to which little ghosts are native is primarily comprised of rocky terrain with very little in the way of healthy soil. The shrubs are perfectly well-suited to the environment thanks to water-retaining adaptations as well as the relative lack of competition in the region but rely on seasonal showers to survive.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Little ghost shrubs rely primarily on the mineral-rich rocky substrate that they are native to. Without much competition in the region, they are safely able to expand their root networks through cracks in the rock in the pursuit of moisture and minerals. The regular drizzles of the region are also vital to their survival as they bring necessary moisture as well as dissolve minerals in the rocks so that the plants have access.

Biological Cycle

Though the City of the Lost experiences regular drizzles through most of the year, during the hotter summer months, little ghost shrubs have been seen to almost retract into tight balls to reduce the surface area available to evaporation. It follows that no flowers are produced during this season either. However, once the rains return, the shrubs unfold and put out flowers regularly.

Additional Information

Domestication

Early in the history of the Dominion, the Averrë Nenn funded regular expeditions to the City of the Lost to retrieve irridîri specimens. The most resilient samples that survived the journey back were bred to increase yield, life expectancy, scent, and flower size. As a result, little ghosts from domesticated individuals of the species are significantly larger and more fragrant than their wild counterparts.
Domesticated little ghost shrubs are grown and cared for in what are known as rock gardens that are under the stewardship of the church. Conditions of the shrubs' native environment are reproduced as best as the growers can manage, while minerals are largely provided through the solution that is used to water the plants. As over-watering can easily kill little ghost shrubs, the horticulturists in charge of the rock gardens use a tool similar to an aspergillum to gently sprinkle the shrubs and the rocky substrate with the mineral water solution.
Flowers are harvested when they reach maturity but before they bloom and are preserved in that state using blood magic until such time that they are sold to memorial services or used for religious observations.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Little ghosts are an important part of tretalleri funerary traditions, and are used primarily in one of three ways: to memorialize soldiers who have fallen as a result of war (even if they did not fall in battle), to memorialize the lives lost in the species' ancient past, and, once a year, to honor the Stranger and the dead.
The distinctive scent of the little ghost flower is able to evoke a powerful feeling of loss, allowing those present at ceremonies that use them to more easily connect with and accept their emotions.

Conservation Status

Irridîri, while plentiful in the wild, are considered a protected species. All materials that are to be taken into its natural habitat are to be examined and decontaminated of anything that might be considered a threat to the flowers' survival. Harvesting little ghosts is permitted only within the City of the Lost, and only for the purposes of laying in the graves situated there. Otherwise, specific permission is required to do so.